State Briefs

Carjacking, shooting in central Arkansas

LITTLE ROCK (AP) - Authorities say a carjacking Wednesday in Little Rock and a shooting later in Pulaski County may be related.

Little Rock police Sgt. Cassandra Davis told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that a man with a gun forced a driver out of a car in Little Rock about 1 p.m. Davis said the carjacker is believed to have driven to Sweet Home - just south of the Little Rock city limits - where one person was shot.

Pulaski County sheriff's Lt. Carl Minden said the shooting victim was shot in the head - but was alive when taken to a Little Rock hospital in undisclosed condition.

Crawford: Tie budget, debt ceiling to constitutional amendment

JONESBORO (AP) - Republican Congressman Rick Crawford of Arkansas says he's not backing down from his idea to raise taxes on millionaires in exchange for a balanced budget amendment. But now he also says the amendment is the only way he'll vote for any budget or raising the nation's borrowing limit.

Crawford said he'll support an increase in the federal debt limit or any budget resolution only if Congress approves a constitutional amendment balancing the federal budget or capping spending. Crawford is seeking re-election to his east Arkansas district and faces a challenge from Democrat Scott Ellington.

Crawford in March proposed raising taxes on millionaires if Congress approved the amendment. Crawford said attaching the budget and debt limit votes to a similar amendment are part of a new approach he'll try.

Checks for drought relief heading to Ark.

LITTLE ROCK (AP) - Gov. Mike Beebe says more than $2 million in checks will soon be heading to Arkansas ranchers who qualified for relief from the summer drought.

Beebe said Wednesday that about 8,500 ranchers qualified for the Livestock Assistance Grant Program.

The funding is provided by a $2.1 million grant from the Governor's Disaster Fund.

Beebe says the Arkansas Agriculture Department and the Department of Finance and Administration are working to process and get the checks in the mail within three weeks.

The money is to help cattle, sheep and goat ranchers offset the cost of hay and other forage for their livestock.

Highland superintendent abruptly retires

HIGHLAND (AP) - The embattled superintendent of the Highland School District has abruptly retired.

Assistant Superintendent Tracy Webb told The Jonesboro Sun that the school board accepted James Floyd's request to resign on Monday.

Webb - who was appointed superintendent - says Floyd did not submit a retirement letter and that his reasons were not revealed.

Efforts to contact Floyd were unsuccessful.

The board had questioned Floyd about a 2010 trip to a conference in Las Vegas that the district paid $809 for in airfare, car rental, hotel and other fees. An auditor recently reported that there was no evidence Floyd actually attended the conference.

Floyd at the time denied wrongdoing and told the newspaper that he didn't preregister for the conference - but registered on site the day it started.

Benton County first year middle school teacher arrested on battery charge

ROGERS (AP) - A teacher at a northwest Arkansas charter school has been arrested on suspicion of battery after she was accused of hitting a seventh-grade student.

The Benton County School of the Arts placed Pamela Nelson on administrative leave this week after her arrest. Authorities claim that Nelson slapped a male student on the back.

Nelson is in her first year of teaching middle school choir at the charter school.

She denies all allegations and tells Fayetteville television station KHOG that she would never strike a student.

Weather service in Little Rock gets radar upgrade

LITTLE ROCK (AP) - The National Weather Service office in Little Rock has received an upgraded Doppler radar system to help improve weather forecasting and warnings.

Sen. Mark Pryor joined weather service officials in making the announcement Wednesday in Little Rock.

Officials say the Dual-polarization radar will provide enhanced information to meteorologists so they can better track, assess and warn the public about approaching weather dangers. The system can also detect small bits of debris kicked up by a tornado - giving forecasters the ability to confirm a tornado even in the dark.

It will also help detect hazards to aircraft, such as icing conditions and birds.

The upgrade is being made in weather service offices nationwide.

Arkansas school probes noose hazing accusations

WYNNE (AP) - Two junior varsity football players at an east Arkansas school face expulsion after allegations that they put a noose around another student's neck.

Wynne Superintendent Carl Easley says the school board will consider Wednesday whether to expel the two white boys whom relatives of a 14-year-old black student at Wynne High School accuse in the Sept. 24 incident.

Easley says five students have already been suspended. He declined further comment.

Family members of the black student told Memphis television station WMC that the white students tied a noose around the boy's neck before practice last week. Authorities have not confirmed the family's account.

Police in Wynne say no one was injured and that an investigation shows no criminal activity took place.

Former Sam's Club buyer sentenced to probation

FORT SMITH (AP) - A former Sam's Club buyer who admitted taking more than $245,000 in kickbacks from an Oklahoma man has been sentenced to probation.

Mark Hoffman, who was a senior buyer for Sam's Club, was accused of accepting kickbacks from David Workman of Oklahoma City. Workman was a broker for Bay Area Coffee.

Both men were charged with mail fraud and pleaded guilty in April. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that U.S. District Judge Robert Dawson sentenced both men Tuesday to three years of probation and fined them each $5,000.

Court records claim that Hoffman solicited kickback payments from Workman as the Bay Area Coffee broker so that Workman could continue selling coffee to Sam's Club.

Attorneys for both men sought leniency, saying their clients had never been in trouble before.

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State Briefs

Authorities say a carjacking Wednesday in Little Rock and a shooting later in Pulaski County may be related. Little Rock police Sgt.